Guide
Canastón rules
Everything that gets scored in a game of Canastón — canastas, cards, points to meld, honors and bonuses — in tables that are easy to check at the table.
These are the usual values, the ones the app comes with. Every group plays its own way: in Anota Canaston you can change what each canasta is worth, the bonuses, the penalties and the target.
What each canasta is worth
A canasta is a meld of seven or more cards. What it’s worth depends on the cards in it:
| Canasta | Points | From hand (×2) |
|---|---|---|
| Clean | 500 | |
| Dirty | 300 | |
| Clean aces | 1,000 | |
| Dirty aces | 500 | |
| Dirty wildcards (deuces and jokers) | 2,000 | |
| Clean deuces | 3,000 | |
| Jokers | 5,000 |
A canasta melded straight from the hand (en mano) is worth double. A canastón de mono — a dirty wildcard canasta melded from the hand — is worth 4,000.
A canasta can be closed with up to two wildcards (monos). Once closed, you can add cards to it, but no wildcards.
What each card is worth
At the end of every round you count the melded cards and the ones left in hand:
Joker
50
Ace and deuce (pato)
20
8 to K
10
3 to 7
5
Black 3
5
If the team closed at least one canasta, melded cards add and each player’s cards left in hand subtract. If it closed none, everything subtracts: what was melded and what was left in hand.
Points to meld
To make its first meld in a round, a team needs a minimum number of points that depends on its cumulative score in the game:
| Cumulative score | Minimum to meld |
|---|---|
| Up to 3,000 Clean melds only: no trios with wildcards. Only a clean run of deuces or a clean joker meld may use them. | 50 |
| 3,005 to 5,000 | 90 |
| 5,005 to 7,000 | 120 |
| 7,005 to 10,000 | 160 |
| 10,005 to 12,000 | 180 |
| 12,005 and up | 200 |
At the start of every round, the app tells each team how many points it needs to meld.
Honors (red threes)
There are 6 red threes in a 4-player game and 8 in a 6-player game. What they’re worth depends on the canastas the team closed:
Closed clean and dirty
They add: 100 each from one to three, and 200 each with four or more.
Closed only clean
They neither add nor subtract: they’re worth 0.
Only dirty, or none
They subtract: −200 each up to three, and −400 each from four (four honors subtract 1,600).
Black threes are stop cards: they block picking up the pile and are never melded. They’re worth 5 points and can only be laid down when going out.
Bonuses and penalties
- Going out (la ida)For the team that goes out. Only counts if it closed at least one clean and one dirty canasta.
- +300
- All six black threesExtra on going out if the player lays down all six black threes at once. They don’t count as a canasta.
- +300
- CanastónFor closing 9 canastas in the round.
- +3,000
- Super CanastónFor closing 11 canastas. It replaces the Canastón: the two don’t add up.
- +5,000
- Exact cutIf the cutter leaves exactly the cards needed for the deal.
- +500
- PenaltiesFor a misdeal, a bad meld or suggesting a play to your partner. Each time.
- −500
The game and the session
A game is won by the team that reaches 15,000 points. If both pass 15,000 in the same round, the higher score wins; if they’re tied, you play another round.
With 4 players, a session is 3 games: one for each partnership combination. The mano and the dealer stay put between games, except in the last one: there the dealer moves, but never the mano.
Every player keeps her own result. At the end of each game, scores are rounded to thousands (15,680 → 16; 14,300 → 14) and each player adds her team’s difference (+2 or −2). Whoever has the most after all the games wins the night.
With 6 players you play in two teams of three, with 8 red threes in play.
The pile and going out
- Each turn you draw 2 cards from the stock, or take the pile with 2 cards matching the top one (plus the points to meld, if your team hasn’t melded yet). Kings don’t count toward the points to meld when taking the pile.
- If a deuce or a joker is thrown on the pile, it’s frozen (triado): taking it needs 3 cards matching the top one.
- If the top card belongs to a canasta that’s already closed, the pile is free (regalado).
- You must discard to go out, and you can’t discard a black three or a wildcard. Ask your partner first: if she says yes, you must go out; if she says no, wait a turn before asking again.
- Mono obliga a mono: once a team melds a wildcard canasta, it must put its wildcards there until it’s complete.
Let the app do the sums
Anota Canaston applies all of these rules for you, round by round. You just play.
Start scoring